SEO copywriting: Searchwritten

So you’ve advised your client to implement user generated content into their website, because it helps increasing their rankings, and sales. Good

You also told them that it is a good idea to do so, because:

• it generates a lot of relevant content;
• people use the same words to describe something as they would when they search for it;
• these people are looking closely at your products and site, and talk about it … publicly. If they like it, you have fans. Everybody knows how important fans are;
• and a couple of reasons more I forgot to mention.

Your client is excited: ‘yes, I want user generated content for my site. Gimme gimme gimme!’ Now it’s up to YOU to actually make it work… What can you tell them?

Below is my own list of items I think about whenever this need arises. Every situation is different of course, and it’s probably far from complete. But it should give you something to work with. Use it for your own benefit.

And while we’re talking about co-creation anyway: if you’ve got additions, drop a comment!

Goal defining

What do you want to reach? It should fit into the goals that you’ve already set for the business as a whole, and the website in particular. So what sub-target (KPI) is the addition of user generated content supposed to reach? Think about stuff like:

• generation of unique content to support rankings;
• generation of quality content to support rankings;
• both the above;
• establishing a fan base;
• higher conversion rates (user generated testimonials);
• etc.

Situation

What has already been done:

• Is it already technically possible and easy for users to interact with the website?
• Is the content displayed on the same URL it’s supposed to support?
• is it hidden or shown in full sight?
• Are there enough visitors already on the website that will start to interact immediately?
• Or do you need to kick it off yourself?
• what does the competition do?
• can you handle criticism?
• can you handle moderation tasks?

Users

The users (including the business owners) of the website are crucial, of course. What do you know about them?

• What kinds of users does your website have?
• how many visitors?
• how many of them convert into buyers?
• Can you display their presence in a percentage(%)?
• Can you track their presence? (more info)
• What part would each group of users play in the content creation process? Think about: commenting, just reading, moderation, etc.

Gains

What reasons would each group have to interact. What do they gain from it. Think about reasons like:

• curiosity
• meaning
• to belong to a community
• doing good
• reflection
• ease, comfort, gain
• status (within the community)
• coping
• testify
• etc

They’re all psychological reasons – and needs. This part of your analysis is critical, because YOU are the one who has to think of a way to fulfill these needs. If interacting with a website makes a user feel good, they interact with the website. So what should the website OWNER do, to make someone feel good about interacting with the website? The same principle applies to the other needs, and the other types of users. This is a one on one translation from user types to needs to facilitation of needs.

Reputation and fear of communicating

That being said, there is another thing you should think about. Do you WANT people to tell others about your products? Can you handle criticism? Do you have people avaliable to monitor incoming reactions? Do you WANT to monitor it? Are you willing to LISTEN to the reactions people give? Is your organization equipped to deal with the influx of a lot of comments/reviews? Can you finance it? In general: do you have fear of communicating with your clients? If so, I would advise to get rid of that fear first (or the reasons of that fear) before you start communicating.

One example: a comic book store

Let’s say that you have a comic book store and that you sell your inventory online. You have a number of goals, but let’s assume the most important one is sales generation. The website already has a number of visitors and some of them, most notably collectors, are passionate about your products.

What you should do is collect some data first: visitor/user types, number of visitors, website KPI’s, etc. After that, you can start a brainstorm: what are their needs and how can you address those needs? The brainstorm is intended to come up with ideas about gains that address the already formulated needs of user groups.

A couple of types of users are: comic book readers / commenters / drawers / buyers / collectors, etc. The table below could be the start of a nice matrix:

The table above is just a beginning, not complete, and could probably be better visualized, but the idea is clear, I hope ;)

Conclusion

The most important thing I’m trying to tell here is that you must have insight about:

• the goals
• the users
• their (and your) needs
• how YOU can facilitate fulfillment of their needs
• how THEY fulfill your needs
• how that fulfillment adds to reaching your goals
• rinse, repeat…

In short: user needs